I took the Zilioli out for a spin yesterday just to give it another go after almost 5 years in the basement. I put the old tubulars back on it, which may ultimately be a mistake since they are really dried out. They held air so why not give 'em a go.
It was cold and what I've noticed is that I can't ride well in the cold. Every year I complain about not being in shape at all, and it turns out that once it warms up I have no problem. We've had a few warmer days this year where you didn't need a jacket and I felt fine, and the next day it'll be colder and my legs feel like lead.
Cleaned up the Kuota too, and it rides great. This is still my primary ride. The other 2 steel road bikes just don't do it for me even if they look great.
So far this year I've only done Prospect Park, so nothing to really talk about. I haven't even made it into Manhattan or Williamsburg. Soon enough it'll be spring... But first, my lager has to finish. I need the cold weather to do it.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Brewing up another batch
I haven't actually brewed the batch yet, but probably tomorrow I'll be doing my first batch in a long time. I bought the ingredients for an amber lager and another Ruination IPA clone.
When I started looking into making a lager again on the homebrewtalk forums, I found that I made one major mistake the first time. When I pitched the yeast, I did it at room temperature. While this is sometimes OK with a lager, and is done by a lot of homebrewers, it produced a lot of banana ester that way. This time I'm going to cold pitch the yeast, meaning down at the lager fermentation temperature of about 50F or so. In order to do this though I found out that one needs to make a large starter, much bigger than the usual pint plus 1/2 cup of extract. This one calls for 3 quarts. What it really is doing is propagating the yeast so you have enough cells to get the fermentation started immediately. The smaller starter won't have enough and it would take a long time to get it going. Cold pitching is the German way of doing it, AnheuserBusch uses beechwood and that makes it less important, or something like that. Beechwood aging is real I guess, not just an advertising slogan, and really part of the brew process.
So tomorrow I'll brew it up, and then let it cool overnight in the carboy, then pitch the yeast in the morning. At least this means I don't have to worry about it cooling fast. Leaving it without yeast though means there is a greater chance of contamination. The other option is to cool it all down to 50 in the pot using lots of ice. The tap water is already cold enough.
When I started looking into making a lager again on the homebrewtalk forums, I found that I made one major mistake the first time. When I pitched the yeast, I did it at room temperature. While this is sometimes OK with a lager, and is done by a lot of homebrewers, it produced a lot of banana ester that way. This time I'm going to cold pitch the yeast, meaning down at the lager fermentation temperature of about 50F or so. In order to do this though I found out that one needs to make a large starter, much bigger than the usual pint plus 1/2 cup of extract. This one calls for 3 quarts. What it really is doing is propagating the yeast so you have enough cells to get the fermentation started immediately. The smaller starter won't have enough and it would take a long time to get it going. Cold pitching is the German way of doing it, AnheuserBusch uses beechwood and that makes it less important, or something like that. Beechwood aging is real I guess, not just an advertising slogan, and really part of the brew process.
So tomorrow I'll brew it up, and then let it cool overnight in the carboy, then pitch the yeast in the morning. At least this means I don't have to worry about it cooling fast. Leaving it without yeast though means there is a greater chance of contamination. The other option is to cool it all down to 50 in the pot using lots of ice. The tap water is already cold enough.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
My Bikes
I currently have 3 road bikes and 1 mountain bike, hence my moniker. I'm not riding any of them at the moment, and I don't mean as I type this. It is winter here in the big apple (does anybody call it that anymore?)
The first one is my custom built, hand painted, steel Davidson. I had this one made when I lived in Seattle back in the 80s. Up to that point I had mid-level off the rack type bikes, Austro-Daimler, Atala, Peugeot. Nothing fancy, but decent bikes that I could barely afford. When the last one was stolen, I was finally working after college, in fact it had been a few years already, and I was ready to step up. I had taken a maintenance class at Wright Bros. cycle coop down in what is now the "Center of the Universe", Fremont. It has become well known for another type of riding before the Solstice Parade. For one of the class sessions, we took a car ride down to Bill Davidson's shop south of Seattle where he demonstrated the art of frame building. It was one of those moments where you see something and you say "I WANT that". So, I bought one. Not right there on the spot, but a bit later. I equipped it with a mix of parts, but stuck with Campy NR derailleurs and shifters, the other thing I always wanted. This was in 1981 and I still have it. Over the years I replaced all the parts that wear out, I even had a pair of sew-up wheels built for me, this time on Campy hubs. A few years ago, when I got back into cycling, I was seeing all these much nicer clincher wheels on the road and decided to check them out, and posted on the BikeForums asking what would be good. I had an immediate response from someone that happened to be local, he didn't even know that, and I bought another pair of wheels for my then 20+ year old bike, these were Velomax Tempests. Wow, what a difference. These wheels were smooth and stiff and could really accelerate. And they were cheap. I've also fixed up a few other things recently, like new brakes, saddle, seat post, pedals. It didn't add up to much money.
About a year after I bought the Davidson, my step-father Louie came back from his home town of Cuneo, Italy, with a bike with the name Italo Zilioli on it. He said it was the town fair special. It had everything I drooled over but couldn't quite afford on it. Campy SR pantographed components. Nisi Laser aero rims. Modolo Kronos brake levers with the hidden cables which were new back then. He then basically gave it to me in trade for a mountain bike that he could really ride. I never found out what he paid, but he paid in Lira that he had from his army pension. He only used that money when he went home, so it was like free money to him. So now I had two steel bikes. I never upgraded anything on this bike as it was too nice the way it was, although I put a compatible chain on it so I could ride it with the new Velomax wheels from the other bike.
The third bike is my MTB, which actually has only been ridden by my son Daniel over the last few years. It is a Trek 8000 from around 1994 that I bought for my 40th birthday as a present for myself. I enjoyed riding this one for a while, I even put a child seat on it and I'd take Daniel around the park.
The last one is my Kuota Kredo, a full carbon fiber lightweight. I went almost all out on this one, only holding back on the wheels when the bill got too high. I still lust after better wheels. This is equipped with Campy Chorus all around and other bits of the same type. This one makes all the others seem slow. The only thing holding this bike back is the rider. It also cost more than the other 3 bikes combined. There's one more thing about this bike though and it involves 2 broken wrists. Ouch. I had originally bought a Kuota Kharma in January 2005, a somewhat cheaper frame that was built with those parts, but I then crashed it in June. After I healed and the insurance money came in I bought the Kredo and swapped all the parts over.
Now if I could get to ride any of them that would be great, but at this point I'll be happy to ride once or twice before March. Which one I'll take will depend on how I feel. Since all three are spotless at this point I'd hesitate to take them in the rain or snow.
The first one is my custom built, hand painted, steel Davidson. I had this one made when I lived in Seattle back in the 80s. Up to that point I had mid-level off the rack type bikes, Austro-Daimler, Atala, Peugeot. Nothing fancy, but decent bikes that I could barely afford. When the last one was stolen, I was finally working after college, in fact it had been a few years already, and I was ready to step up. I had taken a maintenance class at Wright Bros. cycle coop down in what is now the "Center of the Universe", Fremont. It has become well known for another type of riding before the Solstice Parade. For one of the class sessions, we took a car ride down to Bill Davidson's shop south of Seattle where he demonstrated the art of frame building. It was one of those moments where you see something and you say "I WANT that". So, I bought one. Not right there on the spot, but a bit later. I equipped it with a mix of parts, but stuck with Campy NR derailleurs and shifters, the other thing I always wanted. This was in 1981 and I still have it. Over the years I replaced all the parts that wear out, I even had a pair of sew-up wheels built for me, this time on Campy hubs. A few years ago, when I got back into cycling, I was seeing all these much nicer clincher wheels on the road and decided to check them out, and posted on the BikeForums asking what would be good. I had an immediate response from someone that happened to be local, he didn't even know that, and I bought another pair of wheels for my then 20+ year old bike, these were Velomax Tempests. Wow, what a difference. These wheels were smooth and stiff and could really accelerate. And they were cheap. I've also fixed up a few other things recently, like new brakes, saddle, seat post, pedals. It didn't add up to much money.
About a year after I bought the Davidson, my step-father Louie came back from his home town of Cuneo, Italy, with a bike with the name Italo Zilioli on it. He said it was the town fair special. It had everything I drooled over but couldn't quite afford on it. Campy SR pantographed components. Nisi Laser aero rims. Modolo Kronos brake levers with the hidden cables which were new back then. He then basically gave it to me in trade for a mountain bike that he could really ride. I never found out what he paid, but he paid in Lira that he had from his army pension. He only used that money when he went home, so it was like free money to him. So now I had two steel bikes. I never upgraded anything on this bike as it was too nice the way it was, although I put a compatible chain on it so I could ride it with the new Velomax wheels from the other bike.
The third bike is my MTB, which actually has only been ridden by my son Daniel over the last few years. It is a Trek 8000 from around 1994 that I bought for my 40th birthday as a present for myself. I enjoyed riding this one for a while, I even put a child seat on it and I'd take Daniel around the park.
The last one is my Kuota Kredo, a full carbon fiber lightweight. I went almost all out on this one, only holding back on the wheels when the bill got too high. I still lust after better wheels. This is equipped with Campy Chorus all around and other bits of the same type. This one makes all the others seem slow. The only thing holding this bike back is the rider. It also cost more than the other 3 bikes combined. There's one more thing about this bike though and it involves 2 broken wrists. Ouch. I had originally bought a Kuota Kharma in January 2005, a somewhat cheaper frame that was built with those parts, but I then crashed it in June. After I healed and the insurance money came in I bought the Kredo and swapped all the parts over.
Now if I could get to ride any of them that would be great, but at this point I'll be happy to ride once or twice before March. Which one I'll take will depend on how I feel. Since all three are spotless at this point I'd hesitate to take them in the rain or snow.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Beer and brewing
Here's another thing I haven't done for a few months now. No, I drink plenty of beer, I'm talking about brewing beer.
I started homebrewing the first time back in 1994 or so. It was a way to have a hobby at home with a new baby here. Cycling took way too much time away. I did 4 or 5 batches and they came out pretty good as I recall and they never lasted. You get about 2 cases per 5 gallon batch and while that sounds like a lot, well it just isn't. I could brew late in the evening, once my son was asleep. Bottling was done over a two evening stretch, one to sanitize the bottles by soaking in a bathtub full of bleach, the next to actually bottle. Each session, no matter which aspect of the process I was doing, somehow always ended up taking 2 hours.
This time around, I started up doing it as a science project for my daughter. Thinking I had all the equipment already, I'd just get an ingredients kit. But of course the years in the basement didn't do the stuff any good, and then I couldn't find a number of items so I had to go buy another brew kit. I drove out to Islip L.I. and bought everything I needed at once. We brewed the beer together, took measurements together, and she helped with the bottling. The science part was measuring the specific gravity and timing the bubbles, to show fermentation taking place. The beer was an English Pale Ale, and it was really good. In fact it was so good I started making more batches.
So far I've done the Pale Ale, an Extra Special Bitter, a German lager, an IPA, a Hefeweizen, and a nut brown ale. The nut brown was a bust but the others were pretty good. I'm running out of most of them at this point.
So my next brew is going to be ??? I may try another lager since it is getting cold again outside, which means I have the natural refrigeration needed to do one. This time I want to keep it very cold, the last one has a bit of a banana ester flavor to it because it was a little too warm. I'll have to go online and order a kit. It'll be a post-holiday thing to brew again.
I started homebrewing the first time back in 1994 or so. It was a way to have a hobby at home with a new baby here. Cycling took way too much time away. I did 4 or 5 batches and they came out pretty good as I recall and they never lasted. You get about 2 cases per 5 gallon batch and while that sounds like a lot, well it just isn't. I could brew late in the evening, once my son was asleep. Bottling was done over a two evening stretch, one to sanitize the bottles by soaking in a bathtub full of bleach, the next to actually bottle. Each session, no matter which aspect of the process I was doing, somehow always ended up taking 2 hours.
This time around, I started up doing it as a science project for my daughter. Thinking I had all the equipment already, I'd just get an ingredients kit. But of course the years in the basement didn't do the stuff any good, and then I couldn't find a number of items so I had to go buy another brew kit. I drove out to Islip L.I. and bought everything I needed at once. We brewed the beer together, took measurements together, and she helped with the bottling. The science part was measuring the specific gravity and timing the bubbles, to show fermentation taking place. The beer was an English Pale Ale, and it was really good. In fact it was so good I started making more batches.
So far I've done the Pale Ale, an Extra Special Bitter, a German lager, an IPA, a Hefeweizen, and a nut brown ale. The nut brown was a bust but the others were pretty good. I'm running out of most of them at this point.
So my next brew is going to be ??? I may try another lager since it is getting cold again outside, which means I have the natural refrigeration needed to do one. This time I want to keep it very cold, the last one has a bit of a banana ester flavor to it because it was a little too warm. I'll have to go online and order a kit. It'll be a post-holiday thing to brew again.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Cycling, or not cycling
It is December after all. I haven't been on my bikes in over a month now, and I'm definitely having withdrawal. I like cycling. It is freedom.
I've been riding a '10 speed' since I was 15, or maybe even younger I can't quite place the date, when I bought that white Peugeot that was all the rage back then in 1969 or so. Since then I've owned an Atala Grand Prix, an Austro-Daimler Inter-10, a Raleigh Competition, a custom built Davidson, a bike from Italy built for Zilioli, a Trek 8000 MTB, a Kuota Kharma, and now a Kuota Kredo with all the parts from the Kharma. I still have 4 of the last 5 mentioned there, the Kharma I crashed.
My regular rides are in Prospect Park, around and around, until I can't stand it anymore. This I do on weekdays after work, sometimes on weekends too when I don't have the time to go further. The other favorite is going to Piermont and Nyack, just like almost every other NYC cyclist. The only difference is that Brooklyn is a bit further. It is 70 miles r/t to Piermont, 75 or so to Nyack. The ride always includes hills, at least one coming back, and throw in the Alpine climb for good measure.
I do the more casual NYC organized rides, like the 5 boro, and the Tour de Bronx. I've done the 5 boro with the kids and they always have that sense of accomplishment when they're done. My son used my Trek, which is mostly his now, and one of my daughters rode it on her Specialized Dolce Vita, an all out road bike. The TdeBx is one of my favorites, but this year it was a bust. Oh well.
I'm going to do the indoor computrainer class again this year. I'll have to get my partner to do it with me again, although we have the hardest time coordinating. It took two months to figure out a time to ride in the park in the spring. And now in the fall she bought a beautiful new bike, and we've been trying to coordinate a ride and after-ride homebrew, but it hasn't happened.
Plans for the spring include doing more of the NYCC STS rides, maybe finally giving up on being an "A" rider as I get older. Maybe I can do the Seattle to Portland ride this year, but maybe not. It costs a small fortune to get there, find hotels, etc... I'll register, and then sell the entry if I can't use it. It always sells out and there are people begging to get in. This is the longest ride I've ever done, and I did it fast, but I was much younger then.
Enough for now, I've wasted enough of your time, and my time too...
I've been riding a '10 speed' since I was 15, or maybe even younger I can't quite place the date, when I bought that white Peugeot that was all the rage back then in 1969 or so. Since then I've owned an Atala Grand Prix, an Austro-Daimler Inter-10, a Raleigh Competition, a custom built Davidson, a bike from Italy built for Zilioli, a Trek 8000 MTB, a Kuota Kharma, and now a Kuota Kredo with all the parts from the Kharma. I still have 4 of the last 5 mentioned there, the Kharma I crashed.
My regular rides are in Prospect Park, around and around, until I can't stand it anymore. This I do on weekdays after work, sometimes on weekends too when I don't have the time to go further. The other favorite is going to Piermont and Nyack, just like almost every other NYC cyclist. The only difference is that Brooklyn is a bit further. It is 70 miles r/t to Piermont, 75 or so to Nyack. The ride always includes hills, at least one coming back, and throw in the Alpine climb for good measure.
I do the more casual NYC organized rides, like the 5 boro, and the Tour de Bronx. I've done the 5 boro with the kids and they always have that sense of accomplishment when they're done. My son used my Trek, which is mostly his now, and one of my daughters rode it on her Specialized Dolce Vita, an all out road bike. The TdeBx is one of my favorites, but this year it was a bust. Oh well.
I'm going to do the indoor computrainer class again this year. I'll have to get my partner to do it with me again, although we have the hardest time coordinating. It took two months to figure out a time to ride in the park in the spring. And now in the fall she bought a beautiful new bike, and we've been trying to coordinate a ride and after-ride homebrew, but it hasn't happened.
Plans for the spring include doing more of the NYCC STS rides, maybe finally giving up on being an "A" rider as I get older. Maybe I can do the Seattle to Portland ride this year, but maybe not. It costs a small fortune to get there, find hotels, etc... I'll register, and then sell the entry if I can't use it. It always sells out and there are people begging to get in. This is the longest ride I've ever done, and I did it fast, but I was much younger then.
Enough for now, I've wasted enough of your time, and my time too...
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Piano, or what piece did I butcher today?
I'm an adult beginner piano player, playing now for almost a full year. I have a teacher, actually the same teacher my kids are going to. I only started playing when I bought a small grand piano (not a baby grand) for my kids to use for practice. I wasn't looking to buy a grand except that placement in my house was going to be difficult for an upright due to lack of wall space. Besides, once you hear one then the other, the grand will just win. Mine is a Yamaha G2, 5'7" in glossy black.
I started playing late last year using the Alfred Adult Beginners book, but was quickly bored. While I've never taken a music class and play no other instrument, I have more knowledge about music than I thought. It's really surprising at the low level these books assume. I then proceeded to attempt a piece that is considered difficult even for experienced players, Brahms Opus 119 #2 Intermezzo. I muddled through it and at least I could recognize the music.
I've picked up Mendellsohn, Diabelli, Satie, Katchatarian, Bach, Schumann, and of course, Chopin. Some, like Mendelsohn's 'Song Without Words' Op26#2 I think, I can play through fairly smoothly, others I still struggle with. None are particularly hard, except they all have at least one flourish to struggle through.
My current piece is Chopin's March Funebre, you know, dum, dum, da, dum. Pray for the dead, and the dead will pray for you... I wanted to play it for Halloween, since the piano is in the front of the house. I'm planning on pounding it out when kids come to the door. When I demo'd for my teacher, she was astounded that I learned the first part in a day. It didn't seem all that hard to me. She then had me play the rest, which has a few tough spots, but mostly just octaves. Some day I'll post a video of my playing.
I started playing late last year using the Alfred Adult Beginners book, but was quickly bored. While I've never taken a music class and play no other instrument, I have more knowledge about music than I thought. It's really surprising at the low level these books assume. I then proceeded to attempt a piece that is considered difficult even for experienced players, Brahms Opus 119 #2 Intermezzo. I muddled through it and at least I could recognize the music.
I've picked up Mendellsohn, Diabelli, Satie, Katchatarian, Bach, Schumann, and of course, Chopin. Some, like Mendelsohn's 'Song Without Words' Op26#2 I think, I can play through fairly smoothly, others I still struggle with. None are particularly hard, except they all have at least one flourish to struggle through.
My current piece is Chopin's March Funebre, you know, dum, dum, da, dum. Pray for the dead, and the dead will pray for you... I wanted to play it for Halloween, since the piano is in the front of the house. I'm planning on pounding it out when kids come to the door. When I demo'd for my teacher, she was astounded that I learned the first part in a day. It didn't seem all that hard to me. She then had me play the rest, which has a few tough spots, but mostly just octaves. Some day I'll post a video of my playing.
I'm finally blogging and otherwise wasting someone else's time
Let me introduce myself. My name is Zac. I'm getting old(er), all of 53. I have a wife, 3 kids, a house, 2 cars. It sounds like a pretty typical American life, and it is. I have my interests, my pet peeves, my likes, dislikes. Maybe you can tell from the Blog's name what my primary interest is? Yes, that's right, I'm into Baseball. No, maybe that's not it.
I started cycling when I was in High School, Stuyvesant HS in NYC. Yes, I'm a Stuy grad. That and 30 cents would get you on the subway back then. My first real bike was a Peugeot UO-18, a 10 speed with some of the worst brakes you've ever seen. I would ride it all around Brooklyn, maybe to Manhattan, and even out to New Jersey. Back then, riding out to NJ on route 9W wasn't just another spin on the bike, but was considered a totally crazy thing to do, especially if you were only 16. I only wish my 15 year old son would have such an interest.
Cycling has had its ups and downs since then. I rode in college, and afterwards too, but slowed down a lot after I had kids.
My other interests, in no particular order, are piano, beer brewing, diy audio, trains (totally geeky), cooking, eating, drinking, the neighborhood and the rest of Brooklyn, politics (Obama!). As I go through these activities I'll post more about them.
I started cycling when I was in High School, Stuyvesant HS in NYC. Yes, I'm a Stuy grad. That and 30 cents would get you on the subway back then. My first real bike was a Peugeot UO-18, a 10 speed with some of the worst brakes you've ever seen. I would ride it all around Brooklyn, maybe to Manhattan, and even out to New Jersey. Back then, riding out to NJ on route 9W wasn't just another spin on the bike, but was considered a totally crazy thing to do, especially if you were only 16. I only wish my 15 year old son would have such an interest.
Cycling has had its ups and downs since then. I rode in college, and afterwards too, but slowed down a lot after I had kids.
My other interests, in no particular order, are piano, beer brewing, diy audio, trains (totally geeky), cooking, eating, drinking, the neighborhood and the rest of Brooklyn, politics (Obama!). As I go through these activities I'll post more about them.
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